Flying Man’s is a swimming place where summer activity and personal expression meet. The novel gives it two distinct traces: Sarah arrives from the river after swimming with Luke Jacobus, and a piece of paper is found wedged between two rocks there, carrying a message about a woman going to see her daughters.

Setting and Use

The location is identified through its use as a place to swim. Sarah’s wet hair and the river’s scent on her make her return from Flying Man’s physically present when she arrives to meet Lennie Walker at Maria’s Italian Deli. She has been there with Luke Jacobus, ostensibly working on a song; the scene links the swimming place not only to recreation but also to the pair’s shared musical activity.

The Paper Between the Rocks

A piece of paper found between two rocks at Flying Man’s contains a brief imagined exchange. A woman is asked whether she has children and initially answers no; the correction insists that she is on her way to see her girls. The reversal turns a denial into an affirmation of attachment. Found at the swimming place, the writing gives the location a quiet association with family and longing, without identifying who left the paper.

Narrative Significance

Flying Man’s appears through traces rather than an extended description of its landscape: wet hair, the smell of the river, music-making, and a message left among rocks. These details make it both a social gathering place and a setting where private feeling can surface indirectly. The song and the paper offer contrasting forms of expression—one made collaboratively, the other encountered alone—while both connect the place to relationships beyond the immediate moment.